GRIDLOCK'D
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
You could have fooled me. Not being a fan of either most rock or rap music, I was bowled over by the tragi-comedy that is GRIDLOCK'd. I laughed at the absurdities I heard coming from Spoon (Tupac Shakur) and Stretch (Tim Roth). They were saying very funny things but all contained more than just a bit of the truth. "Life," sang Cookie (ThandieNewton) "is a traffic jam, " and it certainly held true for those three members of a nightclub band.
The first time I saw Thandie Newton was in the beautiful 1992 Australian coming-of-age film, FLIRTING, where she was a lovely teenaged innocent in love with a white boy. Adorable. Here, in GRIDLOCK'd, she is a spaced-out junkie. Thandie is utterly believable.
Tim Roth is a fine, versatile actor, his latest film being Woody Allen's EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU. In GRIDLOCK'd, he has a terrifically funny scene with a couple of policemen whom he latches onto because there are a couple of drug dealers who are nearby and who would like to kill him. "How do you become a policeman?" his spaced-out character asks one of the baffled cops. "I've always wanted to be a policeman," he says with his stupid grin.
Sadly, Tupac Shakur was only 25 when he was killed only a few months ago. Watching his antiocs on the screen, seeing the goodness in the man come through, one could not help but see the irony in his death.
In this film, he is the more sensible of the Stretch-Spoon duo, always rescuing his friend from the predicaments he keeps getting into. Their color-blind friendship flows so naturally.
The story that carries the film is about trying to get into a hospital when you do not have insurance; the bureaucracy, the indifference of the employees to the plight of those who must come to them for help. And all of it presented in a hilalrious, witty series of exchanges. Hey, If *I* liked this film, you are going to love it!
Directed with a sure hand by Vondie Curtis Hall.
Rating : 3 Bytes
4 Bytes = Superb 3 Bytes = Too good to miss 2 Bytes = Average 1 Byte = Save your money
Ben Hoffman
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